RIM Employees Getting Drunk And Disorderly At 35,000 Feet

While I'm a full supporter of throwing a few back pre-flight, a few RIM employees seemed to take this a little too much to heart. George Campbell and Paul Alexander Wilson were forcefully removed from a (what was supposed to be) thirteen hour Air Canada flight to Beijing this past week. Naturally the two drunken men refused to listen to any of the flight staff, resulting in the pilots actually turning the Boeing 777 aircraft around to land in Vancouver.

At 10:21pm on Monday night, Richmond RCMP officers met the plane to arrest and take both men into custody. While RIM officially stated that “Based on the limited information available at this time, RIM has suspended the individuals involved pending further investigation.” their punishment would be as follows: Both were suspended from work for an undetermined amount of time, put on one year's probation, ordered to each pay Air Canada $35,878 as restitution for all the trouble they caused, as well as not having any contact with any of the flight crew or flying Air Canada for the duration of their year long probation.

Unfortunately, 314 passengers were 18 hours late arriving in Beijing because of the health and safety of the flight crew involving flying more than 13 hours at a time, which would have been the case had they continued the flight, and the inability to gather the appropriate number of flight crew members to take over and continue the flight.

Both men plead guilty to one charge of mischief in the Richmond Provincial Court on Wednesday.

Two drunks

The actions of two drunks will not change my opinion of the BlackBerry product line. The BlackBerryline is still the best product on the market. The cost and inconvienance to theairline and passangers should be charged to those who caused the problem. Theyshould also be made to go for counciling if they are to regain their positionin the company.

It doesn't change my opinion in the least. However, given the state of affairs of RIM in terms of a Company performance,eg. stock price, slow to market with new devices, keeping up with the competition, etc, i think now more than ever a management change is in order.

As for the two "drunks", being a frequent traveler I have witnessed an overzealous flight crew before and they may not have done anything bad enough to make the plane divert and be fined such a large amount, and it very well maybe an Air Canada drama overplayed. I'm hoping the men, or someone in the cabin switched on their video on their phones to document what happened, and hopefully these men are exonerated in the end, if that is the case. I feel bad for their families having to endure this humiliation. I'm sure the truth will come out sooner or later.

It was also disclosed that the captain and crew initially thought they had subdued Campbell and Wilson, with the aid of plastic handcuffs and tape. Yet the pair eventually "chewed their way through their restraints." -NBR News

It was also disclosed that the captain and crew initially thought they had subdued Campbell and Wilson, with the aid of plastic handcuffs and tape. Yet the pair eventually "chewed their way through their restraints." -NBR News